School secretaries and caretakers will take the next steps in their campaign for fair pensions for all school staff at the end of April.   

A national badge wearing action will run from the Monday 28th April until Friday 9th May. The aim of the action is to build on the significant support and momentum achieved with our pledge campaign. There are now over 20,000 pledges of support, an amazing demonstration of commitment. This next step is about building visibility for the campaign amongst the wider school community and the public.  

Packs are to be distributed to every school in the country, containing badges for the secretary and the caretaker to wear and stickers for staff members to wear to show their support for their colleagues. 

School secretaries branch chair Luisa Carty said: “The ask of members is simple, wear the badges, get your colleagues to wear the stickers, take a photo and send it to your telegram group, post and tag the union on social media, or send it to the WhatsApp number provided in the instructions in the pack.  It is that simple!” 

She continued: “We want to collect thousands of photos of school communities wearing the badges and stickers demonstrating their support for this crucial campaign. School secretaries and caretakers shouldn’t be treated less favourably than their colleagues. But right now, we aren’t recognised as public servants, so we have no access to the public service pension or other benefits such as bereavement leave, public service sick leave and critical illness leave.” 

Fórsa official Shane Lambert underlined that this small ask will have a significant impact and shouldn’t be underestimated. 

Shane said: “We need to be able to demonstrate the level of participation that exists amongst our secretary and caretaker members and the huge level of support they have among school colleagues and the wider school community. “ 

“We want to show thousands of photos from all the schools in Ireland with our members shoulder to shoulder with their colleagues. This level of solidarity and mass participation will send a very strong message that this injustice cannot be allowed to continue and will not be accepted any longer.  Our members need pension parity now, they demand it, and they have the support of their colleagues and the wider school community to get it!"

Shane asked members to continue to promote the pledge and keep gathering as many signatures as possible.  He said: “The efforts so far have delivered incredible results, but we want to keep going and get as many signatures as possible, so please ask anyone you know to sign including friends, family, political reps (TDs, Senators, and Councillors), local businesses, councils or committees, Boards of Management, Parents Associations etc.” 

Shane concluded: “Every signature counts and every picture will tell a tale to demonstrate the level of support there is out there for this campaign!”    

Download the campaign flyer here: In English As Gaeilge.

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